I still have mine, put batteries in it, and it *worked.* My kids were fascinated and call it their computer, but of course they're too little for it :)

Making Sunday Special by Karen Burton Mains?

We've never used the table hanging kind, but we love our Fisher Price model. It has a bunch of features: variable heights; comfortable; good straps (both to the chair and on the baby); dishwasher safe tray with a cover; folds compactly; easily transportable. We move our little ones out of a high chair into the booster at the table earlier than if we didn't have it (12-14 months). I know of at least 3 that have been purchased because they liked ours so much.

This Rough Magic and Madam, Will You Talk? are probably my favorites, but I haven't read nearly all of them.

I enjoy Mary Stewart as well, but wasn't sure she'd be "smart" enough as I haven't read Sayers. I checked my first Sayers novel out of the library today (Whose Body?) at the rec of some other friends. I haven't seen Airs Above the Ground before, I'll have to see if my library has it.

I've read through the whole thing and bits and pieces several other times. Always a good refresher.

CANNOT WAIT! I've been excited to go since *last *year! It was such a good conference. My big problem is that I want to spend a lot of time looking at curriculum *and* going to talks ... I'm glad there are some speakers I heard last year that I have no intention of seeing again, so that cut down some topics for me ... I'm just gonna have to buy/skip some talks.

I like the Martha one, too. I have the BH&G one and it doesn't do much for me. For really old, there's always Mrs. Beeton's, but it doesn't hit the 20th Century, even. My house doesn't reflect my enjoyment of homemaking books :P

After the reviews here, I borrowed (the only copy) from my library. My kids (esp DS3) begged to watch it every day. Giggled and laughed and guffawed (esp at "K") each time ... I even let them watch twice in a row one day. We had to return it and they were soooooo sad. I bought the set from Amazon (had some birthday money) and, while the Letter Factory remains the favorite, they've enjoyed all of them. I bought the set for my nephew's birthday yesterday (he turned 2). My SIL emailed me today and said, ""Just wanted to say thanks for the DVDs. We watched the letter factory today and Daniel watched the whole thing, and would not stop laughing!!" I'm not much for movies, but this one may have taken over for my 3 yo's letter school introduction!

It isn't "old" per se, but Home Comforts has everything anyone'd ever want to do and more, I'd imagine.

We like "Mediterranean Chicken" ... I cube the chicken, season with salt, pepper, cumin, coriander, and cinnamon. Saute onions and garlic, brown the chicken in the same pan. Add a can of diced tomatoes and cook about 20 minutes. Add cous cous (however much to soak up the liquid) and frozen peas and let stand for 5 minutes; mix in feta and serve. You can do this fancier (whole chicken pieces and make the cous cous separate) but I like the single pan quick to the table easy to serve to toddlers aspect of it. This is one of my kids' favorite meals.

I'm one of those "enthusiastic" ones from the K8 board (and don't really belong there yet, we're calling it K4 but tisn't). Thanks for letting me see the realities! I have a boy who I expect to love math and engineering (assuming his 3 yo loves continue through ... And my 4 yo is fascinated by combining numbers - Mommy, what do you add together to get 6?) That's good, my husband is a math/science guy ... but I love the humanities with history being my first love. I have grandiose ideas and plans (not merely focusing on the humanities), and keep telling myself to hold them lightly ... aptitude and interest will direct. Reinforcement from you ladies is a wonderful reminder.

Mmmmmm .... mango salsa ....

Thank you!

Here are a whole bunch: Test Your Geography Knowledge

My friend bought the whole thing and I just bought the book and we did it as a study together. He did do some classroom example things on the video, but if you can recognize literary devices and have had some literary analysis before, I *think* you could work through the book on your own (it had the charts, sample readings, etc. and text of what he said in the book). To me, the real value of the book is the list of questions, book lists, and the glossary of definitions. I would say don't buy the videos without the book because I might watch the videos a couple of times, but I will use the book all the time. If you buy it from IEW you could review it and return it if you're dissatisfied ... they told my friend I could return it even if I had written in it!

My husband likes mint.com.

We've just started, but the plan is the school year round based on a calendar year ... Jan through Thanksgiving with breaks as needed throughout. We don't have to report for 2 more years, so we're playing with it now (and practicing, scheduled days aren't really my thing), but my intention is to stay on the calendar year plan.

My K4 knew all her letters and cried at the site of Alpha Phonics (pages of words). While she doesn't love OPG, she's really advancing. We totally skipped the letter recognition portion, and I'm tempted to skip around in it with my 3 yo (he knows his letters, but isn't quite ready to blend them together). We're going to add a white board and type out some of the stories (maybe let her illustrate them) because she gets overwhelmed by the teacher portion of the book. ETC A, B, & C and Bob Books have gone a long way to giving her some confidence and we're going to start trying some other books in the mix too.

A good starting point might be Letter of the Week. I did parts of it with my oldest and did some of my own stuff too (we make a letter book) and need to start with my next guy. I do it in the order of the Explode the Code A, B, and C books then the vowels.

Bumping ...

I don't twitter, but I read a (really way too many) large number of blogs through bloglines ... I pressed my "sub with bloglines button" and voila ... there she is without joining twitter. Beautiful.

I hadn't realized before that there were assignments to be done with your children. My oldest is 4 and not yet doing copywork/dictation (I just wanted to be prepared when she will be (in the next year, I'd imagine)) Would you wait until you're in the throes of using these tools? Do you wish you had been prepared first? Would the course even work without doing assignments? I'm thinking aloud here (early in the morning ... not my strong suit) ... anything else I should know? TIA!

I purchased a clearance doll dress at Strasburg this winter. It was in one of the stores and the prices on the website are much higher than what I paid.

Emma would certainly be the best choice for what you're looking for. I'm one of the other Mansfield Park fans; it is my favorite, I think. But light and comic it isn't. I do love Fanny Price.